Originally Posted by MichaelW
The Trek 520 is the "std" tourer for US riders, but it is not setup for loaded touring. Insted, consider the Bruce Gordon BLT as a benchmark. It has all the bits and the specs are right so if you pay more, do you get more, and if you pay less, is something missing? Fuji make a very good value tourer.
You would figure Trek would do some focus testing with the 520 to weed out all these problems. What in the world are they thinking putting that stem on that bike?? Did they think people would do loaded touring and race the tour at the same time?